I am betting the leak is bc the ring is gone and thus it is no longer sealing at all. Im going to pull it out and look to see if there is play. I never took mine apart and it worked great until one day it dumped the fluid. I had replaced nearly the entire PS system, so i enjoyed the short lived, no leaking disco experience. It seems like there are new ones for $250 or so. I may do that rather than spend a few hours and potentially mess up something on re-assembly. Appreciate all the insights. I watched several of the videos on re-assembly of these. was helpful see what is going on inside of these.

 

ya, the kits alone will run you 150+...which is a total ripoff....but they have you by the short and curleys

 

you could pick up one at the local u-pick and practice on it.....to work out the gotchas